Location, Location, Location — Twitter platform developers have been doing innovative work with location for some time despite having access to only a rudimentary level of API support. Most of the location-based projects we see are built using the simple, account-level location field folks can fill out as part of their profile.

Munster: An Apple TV set by 2011 — Gene Munster has seen the future of television and it has an Apple (AAPL) logo on it. — In a note to clients Thursday, Piper Jaffray's senior analyst offered a scenario by which Apple would enter the cut-throat TV market by 2011 with an Apple-branded television set …

The Mercenaries in Facebook's Midst — A $100 million share buyback at the social networking site has been oversubscribed as employees stampede to cash out — In 2007, when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was pressed about when his company would sell shares to the public, he said he was in no rush.

Torrented Pirate Bay Copy Comes To Life — Four days ago TorrentFreak broke the news that a copy of The Pirate Bay's entire site was being shared, somewhat appropriately, on The Pirate Bay. — The 21.3 Gigabyte torrent was created by anonymous reader who told us: “I suppose I want us to have assurances.

The end of the phone as we know it — Startups and disruptors (yes, Google) seek to rethink voice calling. — Andy Jagoe is zigging while the rest of the mobile world zags. Let everyone else chase the next hot iPhone app. He's betting the next big thing is a twist on the same old thing: making calls.

DOJ approves Oracle's Sun Micro buy — Oracle said on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice has approved its plan to buy Sun Microsystems. — With Sun's shareholders having given the $9.50 per share deal the nod last month, the remaining major hurdle is approval from European antitrust regulators.

Windows 7 Will Run 120 Days for Free — Like its predecessor, Windows 7 can be used for up to 120 days without providing a product activation key, Microsoft confirmed today. — Although Microsoft generally touts a 30-day time limit for users to activate their copies of the company's operating system …

Internet slowly wakes up to PayPal's quiet fee hike — PayPal made some policy changes in June, but it's likely that you haven't heard much about them until very recently. That's because the company quietly slid in extra fees that will affect nearly all users but failed to be transparent about the changes.

How Hackers Snatch Real-Time Security ID Numbers — The world's savviest hackers are on to the “real-time Web” and using it to devilish effect. The real-time Web is the fire hose of information coming from services like Twitter. The latest generation of Trojans—nasty little programs …

Besieged by attacks, AT&T dumps celebrity hacker — The perils of being Kevin Mitnick — Over the years, Kevin Mitnick has gotten used to the attacks on his website and cell phone account that routinely result from being a convicted hacker turned security expert.

Yahoo's Social Plan: Twitter, Twitter, & More Twitter? — Is it just me, or does Yahoo have a thing for Twitter? Watching Yahoo's moves this year is like watching a kid in class fall head-over-heels for the prettiest girl in class. He scribbles her initials inside his notebook and tries to impress her at every turn.

Avoiding Van Halen Fatigue on YouTube — More than 100 million U.S. users watch an average of 68 videos each on YouTube every month, according to comScore. How can YouTube get them to watch just a few more? — Google — Hunter Walk, a YouTube director of product management

Yes, Sony, You Are Competing With the iPhone — Sony continues to insist that it's not competing with the iPhone on gaming, even though the opposite is increasingly becoming true. — Tucked into Sony's impressively newsworthy GamesCom press conference yesterday was an announcement for …

Paper magazine to carry video adverts — The first-ever video advertisement will be published in a traditional paper magazine in September. — The video-in-print ads will appear in select copies of the US show business title Entertainment Weekly. — The slim-line screens …

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Leagues See Bloggers in the Bleachers as a Threat — Camera phones, hand-held video cameras and social networking sites like Twitter have turned sports fans with Web sites into instant reporters and broadcasters. But one of the nation's leading college leagues is drawing a line in the turf.

PSD2 Compliance in Zoho Books — The Revised Payment Services Directive, also known as the PSD2, is a set of regulatory guidelines laid down by the European Union (EU) for finance, banking, and payment service companies.

Google Fi - a phone plan, by Google — We felt that most phone plans just weren't made with you in mind. So that's why we built Google Fi with features that real people actually want. Click to learn more.